At decrease speeds, I discovered the Silverado EV somewhat extra cumbersome. As famous, it is a very lengthy automobile, and also you want the costlier RST model if you need rear-wheel steering, which turns the other way to the entrance wheels at low speeds, in impact shrinking the 145.7-inch (3,700 mm) wheelbase. You’ll be a lot happier driving one in all these straight right into a storage reasonably than backing it right into a parking area.
Having a storage is not a should, however in my view, having the ability to cost at house (or reliably at work) nonetheless stays a precondition for getting a plug-in automobile. 120 V (stage 1) AC charging may work for routine in a single day top-ups in case your each day driving is 40 miles or much less, however it might take greater than a day to utterly restore a very empty pack.
Degree 2 AC charging ought to take 8–10 hours for a full cost (Chevy says 10 miles (16 km) in 10 minutes). Though the powertrain operates at 400 V, the pack can rejigger itself at appropriate DC quick chargers to simply accept an 800 V cost at as much as 300 kW. Count on a ten–80 % cost to take round 45 minutes; throughout my week testing the Silverado EV, I solely ran the battery all the way down to round 50 %, so I would not have seen optimum charges had I plugged it in. With local weather change now inflicting extensive temperature swings in early March, I can report that I averaged 1.7 miles/kWh (36.6 kWh/100 km) in chilly climate, however as soon as issues acquired gentle, that jumped to 2.2 miles/kWh (28.2 kWh/100 km).
Was Chevrolet misguided in making the Silverado EV? It actually made extra sense when EV optimism was peaking and the advertising and marketing departments in Detroit thought that pickup consumers can be simple conquests for a courageous new future powered by electrons. That turned out to be the other of true, not less than in the intervening time. However the automaker has a good choice of EVs in different shapes, sizes, and worth factors, and a bonus to its frequent battery platform needs to be a level of flexibility wherein vehicles it decides to place them in.
